Whats your favorite style of beer?

[wimbouman]

India Pale Ales, at the moment.
Also enjoying some triple-like beers.

[Leche]

Stouts and Porters.

[scoof]

Imperial Stout, hands down!

But I just got two cases of Andechser Doppelbock from Germany.

[Shane]

Stouts and Porters, but mostly Stouts. Black as night, smoky as all get-out and more complex than quantum physics, please.

[Lynchmeister]

Stouts and Porters, but mostly Stouts. Black as night, smoky as all get-out and more complex than quantum physics, please.

Wow. If you haven't tried it and aren't already a fan of Rauchbier, I'd highly suggest you give it a shot. I'm willing to bet you'd love it.

[theperfectstorm]

Porter.

[galopede]

Is there another kind of beer other than Guiness???

Yes, you can get Guinness too!

[Mambo Dave]

Well, here's the sad thing - 'best' and favorite types of beer highly depends on one's location just as it does the 'season.'

Let me explain: Over the years, since about 1995, I had been exploring the world's, and north-America's, finest beers. I won't spend the time to go into the numerous types and makes that I've relished, but I assure you - I wish you could taste some of the beers i have that were only available in their form for that one season.

Anyway, I moved from the Pittsburgh, PA, area to south Florida. It took a few years, but even the most interesting beers, now, are merely that - most interesting, but not wholly enjoyable. For some reason this happens to nearly everyone who moves, permanently, to a sub-tropical locale. The best beers just don't cut it, here, for relaxation or enjoyment.

I look around me and ... well, it's not that people are trying to fit -in, nor that everyone has turned gay... my best guess is that the heat (perhaps the humidity has a part in it) asks more of our bodies in as far as sugars or ???

Anyway, it's not until I get back to those places where I can snow ski that I have a taste for something as hearty as a beer anymore (yes, that even includes the 'less' hearty wheat beers). Rum is the order of the day, and thankfully there is a whole world of interesting & complex (as well as uninteresting and puke-worthy) rums awaiting me.

Call us ex-pat northerners-gone-southern traitors, but beers don't work down here like they do up north. That isn't a "we're better or more sophisticated than you" statement - I dream of indulging in, and enjoying, the beers of my past again, but it just ain't the same for us anymore.

[humber burns]

I hear the sad truths of which you speak... but I'm glad you've found what sounds like an equally enjoyable substitute. For the climate your in that is.

[Mambo Dave]

I hear the sad truths of which you speak... but I'm glad you've found what sounds like an equally enjoyable substitute. For the climate your in that is.

Thank you for understanding. I wish you many-an-enjoyable-hoppy-fermentation.

[Phog Allen]

Well, here's the sad thing - 'best' and favorite types of beer highly depends on one's location just as it does the 'season.'

Let me explain: Over the years, since about 1995, I had been exploring the world's, and north-America's, finest beers. I won't spend the time to go into the numerous types and makes that I've relished, but I assure you - I wish you could taste some of the beers i have that were only available in their form for that one season.

Anyway, I moved from the Pittsburgh, PA, area to south Florida. It took a few years, but even the most interesting beers, now, are merely that - most interesting, but not wholly enjoyable. For some reason this happens to nearly everyone who moves, permanently, to a sub-tropical locale. The best beers just don't cut it, here, for relaxation or enjoyment.

I look around me and ... well, it's not that people are trying to fit -in, nor that everyone has turned gay... my best guess is that the heat (perhaps the humidity has a part in it) asks more of our bodies in as far as sugars or ???

Anyway, it's not until I get back to those places where I can snow ski that I have a taste for something as hearty as a beer anymore (yes, that even includes the 'less' hearty wheat beers). Rum is the order of the day, and thankfully there is a whole world of interesting & complex (as well as uninteresting and puke-worthy) rums awaiting me.

Call us ex-pat northerners-gone-southern traitors, but beers don't work down here like they do up north. That isn't a "we're better or more sophisticated than you" statement - I dream of indulging in, and enjoying, the beers of my past again, but it just ain't the same for us anymore.

Which is why I will never live in the South. I cannot abide the summer heat and despise the three and a half months of it we have here in cattle country. I need falling leaves, the smell of hickory smoke from a chimney, hearty beef stews, pheasant and quail hunting in a frost covered field, SNOW, the occasional wail of a mountain lion, the howl of coyotes on a chill night...and malty beers.

I have often thought it is no secret that gin and tonic easily replaces maltier beers in summer heat. Especially in areas where the humidity is so oppressive. Like Kansas. Yeah, Kansas. It is just like Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. It just stays this way for 3-4 months instead of 8 months like those Southern states. I think you are right. After awhile, you are just so wrung out from the humidity that NOTHING the least bit heavy is even appealling. Without a normal changing of seasons you get sort of in a groove(rut?) of certain food and drink. Lets face it, Florida really does not have seasons. At least on the south part of the peninsula. You have 10 months of summer and two months of summer lite. I could never deal with that. I need my seasonal changes.

Regards, Todd

[1OldGI]

My favorite style of beer...COLD only thing better than cold beer is...FREE cold beer. Really, I'm not all that discriminating. But I have found that just like food, beers must be lighter in hot weather. (i.e. Guiness would be a poor choice of beer on a summer day in Florida, I'd probably reach for a Corona, Red Stripe or a Budweiser). Certainly G&T's hold a special place in southern summer lore and the rum drinks (mostly called Boat Drinks) are just a Florida thing to remind us all that we live in the tropics (i.e. Mojitos, Pina Coladas, Dacquaris, etc). Me? I only do mixed drinks as brief side trips. In the heat of summer there's G&T season and in the cooler months (November-Feburary) I'll have a bit of a bourbon season (7&7, Tom Collins, etc.) For the most part though I'm a beer drinker more than anything, my beers tend to be fairly light in the hot weather (Corona, Red Stripe, Bud, Amberbock, Naty Light) and slightly heavier in the cooler months (Sam Adams, Yeungling Black and Tan, New Castle, etc.)

Yes, it does stay a bit warm here throughout the year but I'll take shorts and flip flops at Christmas over three layers of clothes any day. True, there's not the comfort food, fire in the fire place cup of soup and warm blanket season here but we manage somehow.

[humber burns]

Funny thing is I know a couple people who are kind of crazy and will only drink stouts on hot summer days. But for me stouts are strictly a winter beverage, up here in the Great White North!

[rsrick]

My favourite are the ales, particularly bitter and IPA. Mostly though, as long as it doesn't come from a large commercial brewery, I will drink and enjoy it!

[humber burns]

AMEN!

[otherstar]

I like whatever beer I have open in front of me at the moment.

I've tried most styles of beers and I my mood is the only thing that dictates what I drink. I'll drink just about any kind of beer any time of year. Though, there is something to be said about a wheat beer in the Summer, but I'll drink it in winter too (granted I live in Texas now, but I was raised in Kansas and I wasn't any different then than now when it comes to beer).

[Phog Allen]

Hi Jeff. You know it is odd. We have this fantastic brewery in Lawrence and I have been going there since it opened twenty years ago. When they opened they had three beers on tap. One of them a wheat. It is still on tap all these years later and I have never had one. Once I got a taste of real mal ale I just never got around to trying the Wheat State Golden. I suppose I should. I was just there last night and even though summer has landed, I had the beef and barley soup! FreeStateBrewingCo.

Regards, Todd

[Edcculus]

I like almost all styles, except Rauchbier. I'm not the most fond of Light American Lager either. I usually drink and brew with the season. Pale ales, weissbier, kolch etc in the summer. I love a good RIS on a cold winter day. I can do Saison all year long. I also have a special love for "wild beer" like Flanders Red, Berliner Weiss, and blended Lambics.

[Mambo Dave]

LOL, 1OldGI, I've got to agree with ya there. I think my thing is that after living in a place that we turned our noses up at such light, watery beers for so long... I just kinda refuse to drink it down here (Corona (and the other beers that are like it, like Land Shark beer) ONLY tastes good - to me - with a lime in it, and... well... walking around with a piece of fruit in my beer just doesn't help my "hearty northerner" self image much at all, lol).

To add to the overall thread, though, just over a month ago I did try just once more to enjoy a beer, and I found a bottle of what I recall was an Australian beer that had a lizard or a gecko on the label. I highly suggest you all try it - I knew right away that it was something special and enjoyable... - just found it, I am pretty sure it was the "Blue Tongue" Pilsner. Really enjoyed sipping it slowly.

[pablo_h]

You have blue tongue over there? That's surprising. Ever see any Matilda Bay or Little Creatures? I'd name Coopers too, but I'm pretty sure that's widely available over there anyway.